No posts today
Published:
May 30, 2008 at 1:00pm
Today is wrap-up day for Taste magazine, so I’m out of on-line circulation. It’s out on June 8 with The Malta Independent on Sunday.
And tonight there won’t be any posts, either, because I’m off to have a well-deserved martini at the premiere of Sex and the City.
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Red-painted, isolated, camera-shy … rings a bell methought:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7426794.stm
@Mark – thanks for the much needed laugh….
@ Daphne
Will you be filing this under a new section Reklamar Lampanti? :-)
Just kidding.
Looking forward to your SATC review on this blog…
Lovely cover, Daph, as always! Looking forward to the magazine. (“Ray Borg” – Ara kemm ha’ tghid fuq “sister act”, issa!)
Isma hi, me no brown nose, pero ghax you kull ma tmiss is quality material……and that is why the ones on the other side are green eyed with envy. But do not worry people, soon they will have Bright Eyes to lead them to………….whatever. :)
Daphne
Sellili ghal Elinor ta’ 897 jekk taraha il-lejla waqt il-premiere, u jekk jirnexxilek tohodilha ritratt ta’ nies, u iggibu fuq din il-blog, taghmel lili u kocc irgiel ohra kuntenti hafna…!!!! ;)
daphne, looking forward to your comments after yesterday’s xarabank, hope somebody will fill you in with details.
JM seems to be winning the synmpathy of young voters but you don’t run a country simply on that ticket. Also i did not like joe grima’s u-turn about JM. During the last fifteen days he seems to have been converted and he said he does not have any more fears tha JM is the long arm of AS. But i ask: who pushed JM to contest? Will not he or they, be asking their pound of flesh once he is elected?
Once more the MLP have managed to look silly since the programme went on air just the same and the subject was well discussed in spite of all the restrictions and threats of the MLP disciplinary board.
Once Daphne’s ‘village doctor’ said that ‘money is no problem’.
Indeed it has never been and today we are facing a ‘wonderful financial situation’!
Daphne’s favourite e-paper:”The government deficit and debt rocketed in the first four months of this year.
The statistics office confirmed that when compared to the first four months of last year, the country’s deficit increased by Eur77 million. Outstanding government debts at the end of April amounted to Eur3.3 billion, an increase of Eur78 million compared to last year.”
It continues: “At the same time government registered an increase of Eur54 million in revenues generated from taxes. In fact government recorded increases of Eur26 million from income tax, Eur14 million from VAT and Eur9.4 in social security contributions.
The spiralling deficit and debts of Malta are worrying signs for an economy, which is expected to fiercely face the brunt of a bleak international economic scenario”.
More gloom and doom in the coming months!
Do you have any solutions in mind Peter?
Apart from, dak li nwedghu inwettquh?
@Peter Muscat – when the government collects more in income tax and VAT it means that people are earning more and spending more.
@ Daphne – It also means that people are getting poorer and poorer.I wonder why you never mentioned the ‘over spending’ during the first 3 months of this year, compared with previous year.
May I ask you how the government is to cover the billions our country owes? You and I have to pay at the end!
Of course ” money is no problem” is turning itself into a very serious one!
@ Steve Grech – Why did you ask me to find a solution to a problem I surely didn’t create?
It is amusing how you seem to embrace ’empty promises’!Seems you ’empty air’ is enough for your survival. LOL.
@Peter the Economist
Nice to see you can understand numbers better than words. here’s something else to ponder:
The 21-member Commission on Growth and Development — including two Nobel-prize winning economists – has just concluded a study on the most successful economic stories.
Since 1950, the panel found, 13 economies have grown at an average rate of 7% for at least 25 years. These were: Botswana, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Malta, Oman, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
According to the FT:
‘They have come to two broad conclusions: first, fast and sustained growth “requires a long-term commitment by a country’s political leaders”; second, it depends on sustained engagement with the global economy, as a source of both knowledge and demand.
Beyond this, the report identifies a number of ingredients in the growth pie. No country, it notes, has sustained rapid growth without high rates of public investment in infrastructure, education and health. Furthermore, growth means profound structural change. Policy must allow this to happen, while doing what it can to protect people.
The commission also emphasises that “growth strategies cannot succeed without a commitment to equality of opportunity” and action against extreme inequality of outcomes. Meanwhile, the inclination to leave the environment aside at the early stages is a huge mistake.’
Make of it what you will. but may i humbly suggest that if you want to delve into economic arguments you do it with a bit more insight. Oh and by the way, if you spit in the air it tends to fall back in your eyes. in other words if teh economy stumbles we all tumble!
I don’t see anyone getting ‘poorer and poorer’, Peter Muscat – rather the opposite, in fact.
@ Peter
You will have to eat your words soon, because it was planned that in the first quarter government expenditure would increase, mainly due to the various benefits that were introduced in the last budget. Everything is flowing in the right direction and the predictions estimated for this year are on track. Which also means that the budget balance target set for 2010 is on track.
Please remember that the other option to this government declared that government finances wouldn’t be a priority, so that they could support crazy schemes like waste of fuel incentives.
As a side note, could any of you honestly imagine Charles Mangion as finance minister? Especially how he has been behaving lately. My god how close we were.
The Nats are sweet. They are praising this International Commission report as if it were some certificate to the PN government. This is a certificate to ALL the Maltese nation. Praising all governments who governed Malta. More and more it is emerging that for the Nats there is no national spirit, there is only Natsland. Jaqq!
Dear Albert,
What Nats are sweet? What praise? I merely reported what was stated. The report covers the period from 1950 to the present, which if my memory hasn’t failed me includes a substantial amount of time with a labour governments as well.
If you think that the prescription for the continued successful growth of the economy (i.e. “high rates of public investment in infrastructure, education and health. Furthermore, growth means profound structural change. Policy must allow this to happen, while doing what it can to protect people.”) best describes the Nationalist government’s way of doing things, then those are your words not mine.
As I said before, make of the report what you will.
I feel no urge to defend either a government or a party. I was merely trying to enlighten Peter the Economist, who until recently was also Peter the Prognosticator, and before that Peter the Profound. A man of many talents our Pete. I hope Albert, you are not trying to follow in his footsteps
PS wasn’t this supposed to be a non-post anyway. Back to the Chick Porn better known as Sex in the City.
Daphne i realise you like your culture light , but this light? :)
Albert so sorry, but you just have to grin & bear it don’t you…..at least for another five years!
Well dear Albert,
“Since 1950, the panel found, 13 economies have grown at an average rate of 7% for at least 25 years. These were: Botswana, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Malta, Oman, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.”
The twenty five years certainly did NOT include 1971 – 87.
Albert even you know this! Can you HONESTLY, hand on heart compare our lifestyle today to those years of belt tightening? I thought not:)
@Albert Farrugia – the report says ‘since 1950’, so are you going to praise the colonial administration too? The evidence is all there for you to see: the main surges in growth took place during the 1960s boom (it wasn’t called a boom for nothing) and post 1987. Please don’t tell me that your quality of life today in any way compares to your quality of life in 1986.
@Albert Farrugia – I remember my reaction when I went behind the Iron Curtain for the first time in 1985, to Budapest. It was this: “Oh, it’s not so bad; it’s not that different to home.” It’s not that different to home!
As always, everyone sees progress in this country through their own blinkered eyes………
HiGerald,
as always sitting on the fence trying to be wise! :)
@christopher
Yes, the Nats are very sweet, infact. Witness Gonzi this morning feeling so shocked, miskin, that the MLP is talking of electing a leader that – horror of horrors – would manage to instill the right frame of mind for an electoral victory. He has forgotten his standing-ovation-receiving outgoing General Secretary beside him, who, when asked about how the JPO case was handled by the PN, unequivocally stated “My concern was winning the election”.
Mhux helwin allura dawn jew? But do these people really believe that they can continue to fool the people in their face for ever? Now seriously….
@Albert Farrugia
“Mhux helwin allura dawn jew? But do these people really believe that they can continue to fool the people in their face for ever? Now seriously….”
Lejber have been saying that as long as I can remember, since 87 I believe, and yet since 1981 PN continue to trounce lejber time and time again
@David Buttigieg
Aha..so I take it that, yes, these people DO believe they can fool everyone for ever…
@Albert
What the hell are you on about. I try to point out to Peter the Prognosticating Practitioner that economics is a bit more complicated then his pea-brain will allow,you butt in, and now you are telling me about how sweet the Nats are and JPO.
What have i go to do with what Lawrence Gonzi says? What have i got to do with JPO???And what has all this got to do with economics?
Are you seriously following in Peter’s footsteps? (Can someone please insert here a lame joke about Peter’s footsteps and becoming a pope. Its too early in the morning top work it out!)